Goldsmith

There's something compelling about watching people making things. I took my camera into the studio of my friend Eddie Doherty for a series of black and white images of his work as a maker. 

Eddie is a goldsmith who works mainly on high-end commissioned pieces - you can see some of his work here. I'm a regular visitor to the studio, and it always fascinates me to observe how his work progresses from initial sketch to beautiful, hand-finished, often mirror-polished artefact. The metalworking techniques he uses are often hundreds of years old - his hands here could be those of an artisan from the nineteenth century. So could many of his tools. His jewellery is clearly contemporary, custom-made for modern individuals. But I like the way the making of it and the wearing of it belong to such a strong and wide-reaching tradition. Nothing is really new.